Political watchers in the Techiman Municipality of the Bono East Region have described Speaker of Parliament Mr Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin as a disciplined and experienced lawmaker, who will sanitise the legislature.
“We expect the two deputy speakers of the House to eschew partisan lines and support the Speaker to push the development of the nation to the next level,” Mr Ofori Ankrah, a leading member of the Coalition of Concerned Members of Techiman said.
He told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview that, “The new Speaker of Parliament is a beacon of discipline who believes in democracy….and embedded with high democratic traits.”
Mr Ankrah described Bagbin as a teacher and proactive lawmaker with excellent legal brains, who will make the Eighth Parliament interesting and one of the best in Ghana’s history.
Mr Richard Asamoah, the Bono East Regional Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), said even though the Speaker was from the National Democratic Congress (NDC), some members of the NPP Caucus endorsed him.
“This attests to the fact that Mr Bagbin has good democratic credentials and this will make it easy for President Akufo-Addo to govern the nation, and continue with his laudable policies and programmes to move Ghana forward,” he said.
Alhaji Nasiru Yussif, the Bono East Regional Chairman of the NDC, said Mr Bagbin’s election was a step to create equity in the decision-making process of the House and his influence would greatly reduce the ‘winner-takes-all’ system.
He observed that Ghana’s Parliament, over the years, had been partisan in passing laws and legislative instruments for the country’s development and called on the 275 members to bury their differences and forge ahead in unity.
Alhaji Yussif asked them to support the Speaker in passing laws that would spur rapid socio-economic growth to better the lots of their constituents.